News of the mounting crisis in Israel caught two young interns, one Israeli and the other Palestinian, far away from home.

At
their host family’s house in northwest Washington, both tried to keep
up to date. Yehonatan Toker, 28, rushed to the Internet to catch up on
news and to read emails from his Israeli friends, emails that conveyed
the sense of anger and frustration many shared following the events.

Hamze
Awawdeh, 24, watched news reports showing the burnt car used by the
Jewish teens’ kidnappers and immediately recognized the surroundings.
The car was found outside his hometown of Dura, south of Hebron. He
later heard from his mother that Israeli soldiers conducting searches
for the missing teens killed her cousin’s son.

But still, they sat
down, an Israeli reserve officer and a Palestinian nationalist from a
well-known political family, and discussed the events.

“And guess
what? We had a decent conversation, and we both got to see that there’s
humanity in the other side,” Toker said. “What we are doing now is
exactly how we will try to prevent the next murder.”

“I really
felt bad,” Awawdeh said, sitting next to Toker in a downtown coffee
shop, trying to escape the capital’s sweltering heat. “Even though I
disagree with the settlers, I don’t disagree with their right to live.
It’s my responsibility and their responsibility to prevent the
violence.”...READ MORE